Oil tank vent melting siding? Photo attached

grye

Hi,

So I recently had my above ground oil tank replaced in the basement. I noticed around my oil fill pipe, there's what looks like a vent. But I noticed the siding going up looks burned and a little melted? Is hot air coming from that vent? Should I be concerned?

grye

Photo

Jamie Hall

If you look closely at the photo, you will notice an identical brown stain on the last vinyl clapboard below the top of the vent, directly in line with the others. Can't see if there's one behind the vent.

Something up above is dripping on that particular location. It's highly unlikely that it has anything to do with the vent.

EBEBRATT-Ed

are those nails in the siding?

Patchogue Phil_2

Maybe something or someone caused that when removing the old oil tank piping?

Robert O'Brien

That vent cap is nice and shiny. Reflecting the sun?

lchmb

I would guess the old vent pipe was resting against the building and caused the damage previous. Did they wrap the pipe passing through the wall?

grye

It's all possible. But it feels like it's melted. Maybe the reflection? That would be something else.

But no hot air is coming from that vent right?

I don't know much about plumbing, but did they solder that pipe and that's where he heat and burning came from?

Jamie Hall

They soldered the fill and vent pipes? I do sincerely hope not.

@EBEBRATT-Ed looks like he as a really good guess.

newagedawn

to answer your question, no, no concern, my guess the old pipe could have been resting on the siding and in the summer the sun heated the pipe up enough to melt the siding, have you ever touched black pipe after it baked in the sun an hour,..its freaking hot man

Fred

I can see what looks like a faint color difference up that wall, like the siding was shielded from the sun. What was there before? Whatever it was, that's what caused that siding damage.Looks more like some kind of chemical reaction to that siding rather than melting from a heat source. Either way, being at the bottom of the lap siding (the part that protrudes the most) it is from something that laid against that siding.

HVACNUT

Definitely not due to tank vent.
Something leaning vertically against the siding caused that. It's too plumb to be anything else.

Patchogue Phil_2

Was the old tank vent as tall as those marks? Was the pipe rusty?

grye

we moved in last year and there was no pipe but the siding was new. It's certainly burned, not just rust marks. But if no hot air is coming from that pipe, I guess I should be ok.

Patchogue Phil_2

So, the burn spots were not there when you moved in? The you had a new tank moved inside and there was no hole prior to that? Then the burn marks appeared immediately after the new vent pipe was installed?

If all that's true, I'd suspect the tank installers burned the siding. But I have no idea how or why that would happen related to the install.

Jamie Hall

Patchogue Phil said:

So, the burn spots were not there when you moved in? The you had a new tank moved inside and there was no hole prior to that? Then the burn marks appeared immediately after the new vent pipe was installed?



If all that's true, I'd suspect the tank installers burned the siding. But I have no idea how or why that would happen related to the install.

I would assume that that is what this is all about -- and getting some sort of ammunition to pin the burn marks on the installers and get the siding replaced. I think I see a lawyer... there is, unfortunately, that one mark -- directly below and in line with the others -- below the vent. That needs to be explained by exactly the same mechanism as the other marks, since it is otherwise the same. This strikes me as difficult to do.

grye

The siding has been up for a year and was put up before I moved in.

I don't remember ever seeing the burn marks, but maybe I just never noticed. They replaced the tank and put the new vent there, and I'm just now seeing it. I don't think the installers caused the burn marks.

I was (and am) more so concerned that hot air was coming out of the vent and melting the siding, thus being a fire hazard. I could care less about the burn marks being there, I just don't want my siding to catch fire.

Patchogue Phil_2

Can't see any usual functions of a vent causing the burn marks.

You don't want rainwater to get inside the siding if those burn marks have perforated.

unclejohn

They don't look like burn marks too me. It's not the sun reflecting off the cap. Just put a tap of caulk on em and forgetaboutit.

oilheater

As a contractor that has changed out over 2000 residential oil tanks, I can tell you that the rust lines are from the old vent pipe. The old oil tank was there when vinyl siding was installed, so siding guys had to squeeze the siding behind the vent pipe. That tight fit distorted the siding over time. When new tank was installed, they shortened the vent pipe and now you can see the lines clearly. They were there before, but you probably didn't notice. I have seen this many times on a swap out.